Deadly Rivalry
by Brandonstuart
Summary: Beyond Birthday has always been L’s number 1 enemy. What can L do now that B has escaped from prison and plans on settling an old score, with L’s life? Will Kira help his sworn enemy, or has L's death already begun? L/Light, B/L.
1. The first encounter

Me: I've decided to start another fic, this one I started at school. I had to take a flash drive from my computer class because I started typing this in there and you can't get on the internet in that class. Hope you all like it, because this is one of those stories that involves Beyond Birthday, and who doesn't like the murderous bastard?

Please note that this chapter has spoilers for L's real name, I have warned you now.

Disclaimer: I do not own the glory that is Death Note, L, or the lovable B; I only own the plot and this story.

XX

_The wind softly blew through the grass around his feet. He wriggled a toe in vague fascination, and looked back at the man behind him. The man smiled encouragingly, and the boy smiled hesitantly back. The man made a shooing motion with his hands, and the boy timidly nodded and slowly plodded forth, keeping his head down._

_The boy looked from side-to-side every now and then, and seemed very timid and shy. The kids playing nearby took one look at him, and ignored him. Some even went so far as to move to the other side of the playground. The boy's eyes nearly shimmered with tears and a whimper almost came out of his mouth, but he held it in firmly. _

_The boy slowly trudged his way over to the abandoned swings, and pulled himself onto one, swinging forlornly all by himself. His midnight hair flitted softly in the breeze the motion made, and his eyes were as blank and cold as slate. His skin was snow-white, and he only wore a baggy white shirt and baggy blue pants. The weirdest thing about him was the black bags under his eyes that suggested he never slept and made him oddly resemble a panda._

_The boy swung all by himself for several minutes while steadily being ignored by the other kids before one of the kids approached him. This kid held a swagger in his step, and looked to be around ten, and arrogant to boot. His midnight hair matched that of the swinging boy, but he had eyes the color of blood, and wore a fitting black shirt with tan shorts. His skin was pale, but not as pale as the other boy's. _

_This arrogant boy swaggered over to the other boy, while the kids watched on from their playing spot, trying to hide the fact that they were watching at all. He stopped a foot in front of the boy and stood there for several minutes, waiting for the other boy to acknowledge his presence. Blank, obsidian eyes stared through him, neither seeing or recognizing him, and that seemed to piss the boy off even more._

_Finally, after ten whole minutes of being ignored by the other, the boy leaned over the one on the swing and stopped the swing with his hands, grabbing the chains on either side of the other boy and halting the movement. The swing stopped jerkily, but the boy sitting on the swings didn't even seem to notice. _

_That was when the other boy realized that the younger one was holding a teddy bear close to himself, and the boy smirked nastily. He grabbed the bear from the boy, intent on forcing him to acknowledge his presence, and perhaps rip the bear in the process, when it happened. The other boy seemed weak and small, with absolutely no strength in him at all, almost as if he could fall over should the wind blow on him._

_As soon as he had the bear out of the other boys hands, he received a shock as the other boy stood up quick as lightning, and clipped him on the jaw harshly with an upper roundhouse, forcing the bear to go flying. The younger boy grabbed the bear before it could fall, and hugged it to himself, staring blankly at the other boy before sitting down at the swing and starting to swing again._

_The other boy was clutching his jaw in his left hand, gaping and staring at the younger in shock as the realization of what had happened finally hit him. The other boy had actually hit him, hit him! Imagine the nerve, no one ever hit him. Ever. He stood up with difficulty, the boy seemed to know how to put just enough strength into his kick to keep his opponent dazed for several minutes, and glared furiously at the younger._

_He attempted to grab the bear again, intent on ripping it up to show the other boy not to mess with him, and expected the boy to make the same move, and prepared for it. He was surprised when the boy didn't kick him, but raised his hand and hit him in the throat just as quickly as he had kicked him. It had the desired effect of sending him to the ground, knocking the bear out of his hands once again, and knocking the breathe out of him for perhaps several minutes._

_The other boy trudged over to him, and while he looked up he finally noticed that the boy had a hunched back and had also brought his thumb up to his mouth to nibble on it. The boy peered at him from under the fringe of his hair, and the stare had him frozen in place, the boy hadn't even blinked this whole time. Then the boy opened his mouth and spoke only four words, "Don't touch my bear."_

_The other boy gasped for breathe and stared up at him in disbelief, and was frozen long after the other boy had picked his bear up, dusted it off slowly, and walked off. The bell rang several minutes later, but Beyond Birthday didn't even hear it._

_It was only half an hour later when rain began to fall that he was awoken from his stupor. He slowly got up, brushing the wet hair that had fallen into his face off, and slowly smirked as he turned to look at the orphanage. _

_So that was the new kid… interesting. Well, if the kid thought he could beat and humiliate him in front of all of these kids, then he would be surprised. No one beat Beyond Birthday in anything. What kind of name was L. Lawliet anyway? _

_As Beyond quietly walked back to the orphanage, he devised a plan to beat and humiliate him back. It would only be a matter of time, there was no way L was smarter than him, no matter what those tests say. He would wait, and then he would defeat him. He never lost, never._

XX

Me: A little longer than any other previews and it is only a flashback, I'm not too sure if I'll put one of these every few chapters or something, because I want to show a lot of confrontation between L and B. Please read and review.


	2. Contemplations and homework

Me: Here's the next chapter to Understanding Life. This is only a little beginning chapter, showing what Light is doing and what he is thinking. I have also never used the honorifics before, only read them in most Death Note fanfics I've read, so I don't know if I'll get it right. But since I watched most Death Note episodes in Japanese with English subtitles, I can't write it any other way.

I haven't seen the first few episodes in over a month, so I don't really remember the timeline that well. This is set after Light kills Naomi, the day after he first meets Misa (If I remember correctly, it was several days or something before Misa and L first met), but before he loses his memories and gets chained to L. No B in this one, sadly enough, but he will be in the next one. I just can't get enough of him at the moment. I haven't even read Death Note: Another Note, just read a basic summary of it, though, so I might not have his personality down all the way. So don't kill me if that happens. And, here is the chapter:

XXXXX

It had been a trying day for Light Yagami, a.k.a. Kira. After all, he had had to deal with the first encounter with Misa Amane today, and that was practically hell on Earth for him. He was surprised that she had been able to find him so quickly, surprised but not unpleased. It would certainly make things easier in the long run if he could get Misa to meet L soon and find out L's name, letting him kill him and leaving Light innocent because to the investigation team, Light couldn't possibly have known L's real name.

It just so happened that L had his father tell him after dinner that he had to come in the next day after school. Light didn't have a single clue what L was planning, but he could bet that it would be another test to prove how he 'was Kira.' Of course, it made sense considering none of them knew he was Kira, so Light's annoyance that L continually called him Kira (And was right, of course) could only mean one thing to them. That was that Light was tired and annoyed that L continually called him Kira.

Light didn't know how long the game could go on before someone started believing L and helping him, effectively exposing Light as Kira. Light knew that one of the few reasons L hadn't already caught him was that the others didn't believe him and weren't watching Light as closely as L was, that and the others weren't as smart as L or Light. That caused Light to smirk quietly, the others on the investigation team were easy to manipulate against L. They were such simpletons that it wasn't even a challenge.

It had been pure undulated luck that Light had found Naomi Misora before she could tell L the one thing that would put a huge hole in the one thing that was holding his innocence. If L found that criminals could be killed in other ways besides heart attacks, L would discover that Penbar had given Light his name on that bus. If L found that out, Light would certainly be even more condemned than before, and all the progress he had made on the investigation team would disappear. Even his father would start to get suspicious should that happen.

"Oi, onii-chan!" Sayu called from behind Light's door, "Can you help me again with my homework?"

Light smiled to himself, though inside he was slightly annoyed at the thought of his sister interrupting his own study time. "Sure, I'll help you Sayu," he called back, not even blinking when she burst her door open and skipped to his side holding her math book in one hand.

Ryuk, who had been busy munching on a few apples Light had brought up earlier, pouted slightly since he could no longer eat the last apple with her in the room. "Oi, Raito! What do you think L will do tomorrow?" he asked, snickering slightly because Light couldn't answer him while his sister was there. Luckily those annoying cameras were gone, so he could eat as many apples in Light's room as he wanted.

Light's eye twitched slightly at the subtle insult. Ryuk knew very well that Light had no idea what L would do, and he was using his cluelessness to tease him. It was hard to admit to himself, but he really could not think of a single thing that L could pull on him. Unless the train had a camera that he hadn't been aware of… He paled slightly, he hadn't even thought of that. If L could get an image of him inside the car while Penbar lay dying, it was all over.

Sayu, oblivious to her brother's abrupt change in pallor, chirped happily as she pulled a chair over and plopped into it. She put her book on the desk and opened it to the page she was having trouble with. "This is the one that's troubling me the most, do you think you can help me?" she asked, pointing to the twenty-third problem.

Light mentally shook himself and forced himself to focus on what his sister wanted, he could worry later, it would not do to make his family suspicious of him if there had been no camera in the subway. There probably wasn't and he was just worrying more than he should have. He took a look at the problem and solved it in under ten seconds, it was really easy.

"Sure I can help you, Sayu. Here, let me explain," he began, knowing that it would end with her having the vaguest of understandings on the problem when their mother called them down for dinner.

On the bed, Ryuk chuckled to himself. Humans were so very interesting, how they had varying intelligence. Shinigami weren't like that; they were mostly in one range of intelligence, only a little higher or lower than that. He settled in, waiting for the time when Light's mother would call him down for dinner. Perhaps he would get another apple, if he annoyed Light enough. Ah, this was definitely the life.

XXXXX

Me: Did you like it? Things might be a little slow, but it will pick up two chapters from now, because that's when B will escape. There's a little bone for you to chew on, so you can wonder what will happen then. Though I don't really think I need them for this story, I'd really like reviews to know that people like my stories. I'm out.


	3. Another encounter

If there was anything Beyond Birthday knew without a doubt, it was that L

Me: Yup, another installment of Deadly Rivalry, and another encounter between BB and L. Wonder who will win this one. No violence in this one, though. It's more just subtle talking, and thinking. Also, you get an insight on some of B's psychotic thoughts, and how he views himself.

…I think I might have gotten just a little too into B's psychotic nature, because my friend forced me to delete half of the psychoness of this chapter because I was creeping her out. I wonder if that's a bad thing… Well, here's the story:

XXXXX

_If there was anything Beyond Birthday knew without a doubt, it was that L. Lawliet was the most unusual person he had ever met in his short life. Not only did the boy never seem to blink, he rarely ever spoke too. The boy was brilliant, but had the emotional range of a spoon, and talked as much as one too._

_He grinned at the thought, and a kid across from him suddenly ran off, looking rather spooked. He scowled then, the kid would obviously go to Roger or Watari and tell them he was being psychotic again. Then there would be the talking and the therapy, and the annoying therapists telling him not to kill people and that thinking of such things was wrong._

_Stupid idiots. He hadn't thought of blood or killing someone in… well he just did, but the point was he hadn't thought of actually doing it in a long time. He didn't really understand why they all thought he was going to kill someone at any second just because he killed those rabbits last year. He had only strung them up by their intestines all around the school once every week after all, there was definitely nothing psychotic about that. The fact that he took their blood and splattered it all over himself and ran around with a bloody knife was also completely normal as well._

_Yes, Beyond Birthday was completely normal…. Okay so he wasn't, not like he wanted to be either. He was perfectly happy, or as happy as a psychotic child can be, with the way he was. Blood tasted good after all, and it was really fun watching the blood drip off the knife onto the pretty white floor as he walked, leaving a trail of it behind him._

_He looked thoughtfully over at the only other human being still in the room. L was sitting in the corner, reading a book in that odd way of his. He held the book with only two fingers per hand. Beyond could only imagine how strong the boy must be to be able to accomplish such a feat._

_He growled inaudibly at that. That made it sound like he was inferior to L, and Beyond was most definitely not inferior to that little oddball. He narrowed his eyes at the other boy, and decided on a course of action. He stood up slowly, wanting to see if the action would get the others attention. It didn't._

_He stealthily walked over to the other boy, coming to stand right behind him. L only turned another page, still not acknowledging him. This annoyed Beyond greatly. It was one thing to ignore someone when they were on the other side of the room, another when they were right behind you and obviously wanted your attention. _

_Beyond waited for several seconds before his temper ignited and he reached forward to tug at the other boy's hair. It had the desired effect, he thought with a grin, as L slowly turned his head to look at him. That was until Beyond saw that L's eyes were still on the book._

"_Is there something you wanted, Beyond?" the boy asked slowly, voice completely bare of any emotion of any kind. _

_Beyond narrowed his eyes at the boy. Of course there was something he wanted! He wanted this boy to admit defeat and say that he was better. There was no reason for this boy to pretend to be better when he obviously wasn't. Thought that wouldn't be a good enough reason for L. He had said that already, and L had instantly turned his attention back to reading his book._

"_I was just wondering why you sit like that," Beyond said innocently. Truly, it was one of the things he pondered about when he had nothing else to think about. Surely there was a reason and a story behind it. There also had to be a reason why he only ate sugar, wasn't good at social situations, never blinked, never seemed to sleep… there were so many mysteries surrounding L. _

_Without taking his eyes off the book, L responded in that same emotionless voice, "I sit like this because it increases my thinking capacity by forty percent."_

_Beyond blinked. Out of all the responses he could possibly expect, that was not one of them. He had thought that L would ignore him and return to his book, a subtle punishment for asking something stupid. He mentally thought through all the responses he could say, and found the one that appealed to him most._

"_That could not possibly be a reason. The only way that could be a reason is if you had something wrong with your spine that caused you to feel pain if you sat normally," he said, scowling at him slightly. _

_To his complete surprise, L took his eyes off his book and looked at him, if only for a second. Though nothing had changed in his eyes the entire time, something in him told him he had found the right answer. Now all he had to do was ask the right questions. As long as it wouldn't lead to him finding out L's identity (After all, L didn't know he knew his real name, and he wasn't going to admit it anytime soon) L was perfectly fine with answering his questions. The only problem: You had to ask the right questions, or you got ignored._

_So far, Beyond had not been able to ask all the right questions, and was usually ignored. He grinned to himself, an almost-smirk of victory. He casually asked, "So I'm right, huh? Something's wrong with your back?" _

_That must have been the wrong thing to say, because L instantly turned his head back and went on with his reading. Beyond was back to being ignored. He nearly tore out his hair in frustration. What was with this guy, honestly? He was only… did L not like it when people flouted their victories, or had he just gotten bored of Beyond all of a sudden. He frowned. He did not have enough information to make a conclusion, and it would not do to jump to any conclusions._

_After dealing with L for as long as he had (Which was one month, two days, seven hours, fifteen minutes, and twenty seconds, though he had only had real contact with L a total amount of five hours, ten minutes, and fifteen seconds, but who was counting?) he knew when a conversation was over. _

_This one was definitely over, and it would take over an hour for L to find any interest in him again, and only if Beyond took the time to mess with him. He scowled, somehow knowing that he had lost this round in the game of theirs, and walked off. As he walked away, out of the corner of his eye he could have sworn that there was a little smirk on L's face, but it was impossible to tell if it was his imagination or not._

_Beyond scowled as he walked away. The little brat had beaten him again, but it would be the last time. He would win if he had to break the little shit. It may have been a game, but now it was war. Beyond Birthday would defeat L. Lawliet in everything, because he was better._

XXXXX

Me: Sorry about the delay, it was Spring Break all of last week and I just learned that my computer doesn't have a 3 ½ inch floppy drive so I couldn't put my work up. Since I don't have a flash drive, yes I seriously don't, I will have to update in the mornings on the school computer.

If anyone thinks that L is a little too freely giving information, that is because he's a little kid. Nothing has happened to make him cautious and so tight-lipped that he won't tell you anything, not even the smallest thing. That and L is practically taunting B, letting B know that his back was hurt in some way, but not telling him how it was hurt. It would certainly be maddening to think about all the things that could be the cause of it.

Well, now that that's done, I'm getting back to my classwork. Over and out.


End file.
